Mayor Castro late in filing travel disclosures

As the political spotlight on him has brightened, Mayor Julián Castro has been making trips like this one to a public forum titled “A Conversation on Political Leadership in the Future of American Politics” at the University of North Texas in Denton.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, left, and brother Joaquin Castro stand at the podium during preparations for the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on September 2, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The DNC that will start on September 4 and run through September 7, will nominate U.S. President Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Photo By Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

CHARLOTTE, NC - SEPTEMBER 02: San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro stands on stage during preparations for the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on September 2, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The DNC that will start on September 4 and run through September 7, will nominate U.S. President Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Photo By Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

San Antonio, Texas Mayor Julian Castro talks to reporters at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. The mayor will give the keynote speech at the DNC.

Photo By Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, left, who will be the convention keynote speaker, and his twin brother, state Rep. Joaquin Castro, who is running for U.S. Congress, are interviewed at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Sept. 3, 2012.

Photo By Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, left, who will be the convention keynote speaker, and his twin brother, state Rep. Joaquin Castro, who is running for U.S. Congress, are interviewed at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Sept. 3, 2012.

Photo By JERRY LARA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Mayoral candidate Julian Castro smiles after announcing his runoff election against Phil Hardberger at his campaign headquarters in the evening on Saturday, May 7, 2005. Castro was leading the early voting with 39 percent of the votes.

Councilman Julian Castro, center, candidate for San Antonio mayor, addresses the crowd Tuesday, June 7, 2005, in San Antonio at Castro's campaign headquarters. At left is his girlfriend, Erica Lira, and at right is his twin brother, Joaquin. Retired state judge Phil Hardberger held a narrow lead over Castro late Tuesday in the mayoral runoff.

Photo By Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, left, and his brother, state Rep. Joaquin Castro give an interview during preparations for the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on Sept. 3, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.

In the eye of the camera: Julian Castro.

Mayor Castro answers reporters' questions at the Democratic National Convention.

Julian Castro at a Democratic National Committee session.

Julian Castro addresses the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

Julian Castro (in the blue tie) shakes hands with President Obama on July 17. The San Antonio mayor is flanked by his twin brother Joaquin.

President Obama walks from Air Force One with Texas State Rep. Joaquin Castro, his twin brother the mayor and Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, upon his arrival for a fundraising visit to San Antonio on July 17.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro gives the keynote address at the Texas Democratic Convention in Houston on June 8.

Julian Castro easily won a second term as mayor.

Julian Castro smiles as an audience applauds him.

Democrats view Julian Castro as a future star of the national party.

Mayor Castro is considered one of his party's best political orators.

Photo By James Nielsen/Chronicle

Joaquin Castro left, introduces his twin brother and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro during the the 2012 Texas Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, June 8, 2012, in Houston.

Photo By James Nielsen/Chronicle

Democratic Congressional Candidate Joaquin Castro speaks prior to introducing his twin brother and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro during the the 2012 Texas Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, June 8, 2012, in Houston.

Mayor Julián Castro, who recently unveiled a proposal to strengthen the city's ethics code, failed to follow a different section of the code that requires city officials to publicly disclose trips sponsored by third parties.

The mistake came to light after the San Antonio Express-News filed an open-records request for the travel reports to analyze how often Castro left the city and who paid for his trips — especially after the national spotlight focused on the mayor when he gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention last year.

The reports hadn't previously been filed with the city clerk's office, where members of the public can view the disclosures.

The documents show sponsors paid nearly $27,000 in airfare, accommodations and other travel expenses for Castro from February 2010 to March 2013.

“It was an oversight to not file them at that time,” Castro said by phone Tuesday from Austin. “It's been corrected.”

After an ethics flap at City Hall last year, Castro sought to bolster the code to ensure high-profile contracts are shielded from potential conflicts of interest, and he has called for the creation of an ethics auditor.

Asked how he can push for expansion of the ethics ordinance when he was delinquent on another section of it, Castro said: “It is incumbent upon all of us as elected officials to get all the forms filled out.”

Castro's chief of staff, Robbie Greenblum, said the mayor's office is starting an “internal protocol to make sure this kind of oversight doesn't happen again.”

Questions about travel disclosure first arose when the mayor was scheduled to fly to Mexico in February, where he spoke to Banamex, a Mexican bank that funded the trip.

“The trip to Mexico City for the mayor to speak to Banamex was a new situation because that's a bank,” he said.

Greenblum said Castro's travels to that point largely had been funded by nonprofits and universities.

City Councilman Carlton Soules, a critic of Castro's efforts to add more requirements to an already lengthy ethics code, said filling out travel disclosure forms “a couple years later is unacceptable.”

“It should be a lesson to the mayor that adding more rules to a 50-page document full of rules might not be the best course,” Soules said.

The reports released Tuesday do not include trips paid by the city or political campaigns. Castro traveled across the United States last year to give political speeches and campaign on behalf of President Barack Obama. Those trips were paid for by the Obama and Castro campaigns.

The travel disclosures are intended to add more transparency to the actions of City Council members.

The code says the travel report must identify the sponsor, the destination, the purpose, date of the trip and the cost.

“There could be significant things disclosed, and there might not be,” Prentice said. “But the reason we have those is so we know if there are situations where a major conflict of interest arises.”

City Attorney Michael Bernard said that the requirement to file travel disclosures for trips funded by third parties hinges on whether the city officials are traveling in connection to their “official duties” — a term that isn't defined in the ethics code.

Bernard said it creates a gray area for some of Castro's trips, and he argued that the mayor didn't have to file disclosures for all of them.

A $700 trip to Mexico City on Sept. 13, 2010, was funded by the U.S. State Department. Castro filed a disclosure for that trip, even though the ethics code doesn't mandate travel reports for trips paid by public agencies.

The other sponsors weren't government entities. In March 2012, San Antonio Express-News parent company Hearst Corp. paid for Castro to attend Gridiron, a comedy show in Washington, where journalists and politicians poke fun at each other. The cost of the trip was $639.

Jacksonville Community Council Inc. funded a two-day, $900 trip to Jacksonville in September 2011. The year before, the community council organized a series of public meetings for SA2020, an effort to engage residents and discuss San Antonio's future. The city paid the group $147,600.

Ben Warner, president and CEO of the council, said it was a busy trip for Castro. The mayor flew in the evening of Sept. 8, 2011. He spent the next day meeting the group's members, attending an editorial board meeting at a local newspaper and giving a luncheon speech to about 400 people. Castro flew back to San Antonio later that day.